Careerpool revolutionises job searching for Batswana

Melissa Carrington is a woman on a mission; to revolutionise the way people hunt for jobs in this country. Having been in the business of recruitment in the country for a couple of years, Melissa saw a niche market for a modern day job search.

“We started Careerpool at the end of 2014, the reason being that we are part of a group of companies that does recruitment in Botswana. “We are a global village now, if say you are in the United States of America and you want to link with local jobs, you don't have to ask your relatives here to scan newsapaper cuttings and email you wherever you are. That is not possible now in this fast moving world.”

With a total of 31,354 visitors and about 11,986 registered job seekers, Careerpool is fast becoming the site where companies and those in need of jobs have common ground. “we are trying to create a central place for all jobs in Botswana which is a lot cheaper than buying so many newspapers in a particular month.”

However, Careerpool does not get job seekers into employment. What the organisation does is to place job adverts for different companies and registered job seekers respond directly to these companies without having to go through the Careerpool portal. “There are some applicants that send their CVs to us which is not the correct way of doing it, they need to contact the employers directly, not us here, this is only an advertising platform. We provide the advertising and the applications goto the client," she explained.

Carrington said they have benchmarked their organisation with other such institutions in countries like Nigeria and South Africa. “However, in Botswana the limitations are two-fold; the population is very small if you compare it to the countries that I have just mentioned and the other is local companies are still used to the old way of doing things hence placing an advert online is not for them,” she added.

Her dream now is to grow Careerpool into a “central place for job searches in five years,” adding: “we have made finding a job in Botswana easier now.”